Electric Scooters Set to Return to Brookline

Brookline is ready to bring back electric scooters after a brief appearance in some Massachusetts cities last year.

(Published Wednesday, March 13, 2019)

Get ready to scoot your way around Brookline, Massachusetts!

Town officials reached a deal with Lime and Bird Scooters to launch a pilot program in the community starting April 1.

"Our hope and expectation is that it will, and will be a successful program once we see the demand," Hachem Alaoui Soce, Lime's Northeast general manager, said Wednesday.

Both Bird's and Lime's scooters work in conjunction with a phone-based app that unlocks the electric scooters. Lime says it will initially launch 100 of the electric scooters around Brookline, but that could go up based on demand.

Clerk Pulls Out Machete on Would-Be Robber

A would-be robber armed with a knife had a surprise in store when an Alabama store clerk pulled out a machete in defense. The two's brief knife fight was caught on camera before the clerk runs out to damage the robber's car.

According to police, suspect Seth Holcomb walked up to the counter to make a purchase. He leaves the store and then comes back in as if to make a second purchase. Then, he pulled out a knife at the counter. What he didn't expect was that the clerk would pull out a machete of his own.

(Published Wednesday, March 20, 2019)

The scooters can go up to 15 mph.

Bird launched scooters in Somerville and Cambirdge last summer, only to pull them out after town officials in both complained about the lack of an agreement.

"Bird is thrilled to bring our fun and environmentally friendly transportation option to Brookline this spring," a Bird spokesperson said. "We look forward to doing the same for Brookline. We have been working closely with city officials as they move forward with this pilot program and we applaud their leadership on the important issue of transportation innovation."